Benders and Brawlers
by Amy Raine
Summary: Jinora, Skoochy and the Fire Ferrets gather on Air Temple Island to play the Avatarverse version of Dungeons and Dragons. Hilarity ensues. Very mild Jinora/Skoochy but is mostly gen.


**AN: This was written in response to a prompt on the Livejournal comm ficbending. The prompt went as follows:**

**"The Fire Ferrets and Tenzin's kids get together to play their world's version of DnD. Jinora's the Dungeon Master, Korra is a noob, Bolin is a munchkin (a playful munchkin but a munchkin none the less) and Mako is constantly frustrated by his bad dice rolls."**

**I changed it up a little when writing: Mako is a rules lawyer as well as someone who can't roll for crap, and I thought Ikki and Meelo were too young for something like D&D so I substituted Skoochy (the kid Mako pays for information about his brother in Episode 3). It wasn't an excuse to ship Jinoochy, not at all. **

**I've made some edits in this version, but its mostly the same. Oh, and I (re)discovered that a munchkin is the same as a minmaxer. My D&D terminology-fu is weak. **

**I stayed within universe because of the prompt and because the idea of benders roleplaying benders amused me, but this could easily have worked in a modern day AU setting with the AtLA world as the game setting. Although the prompt called for a D&D like game, I decided they don't have a d20 system in the Avatarverse and are using plain old six-sided dice. **

**My setting idea is that it's Kyoshi's era with some twists, such as allowing recently discovered powers to be available to characters from that time, so for them this game would be like slightly fantastical historical fiction. At level ten, benders can either specialize, thus getting metalbending/lightningbending/bloodbending/whatever air would have, or they can dual class and have sword skills, like Zuko. Warriors who don't bend are allowed to learn additional weapon styles at levels eight and sixteen.**

**Yes, I've thought way too much about a fictional dice based tabletop game in a fictional universe. My nerdiness, let me show you it.**

* * *

"No, Korra," said Jinora with exaggerated patience. "You can't be the Avatar."

"But I am the Avatar."

Mako huffed. "When the Avatar is discovered, he or she usually has already mastered one element. That's like starting out at level ten. Add in the Avatar state, which is basically an epic level power, and you'd completely wreck the balance of the group. You'd end up killing anything under level eight before any of us could even try to hit. There's no challenge."

"We'd level pretty fast if the average enemy level is seven or eight." Bolin pointed out.

"But not enough to catch up. She'd always be ahead." Mako flipped the pages of the player's guide with the ease of someone who had memorized the page numbers, then held up the open book so they could see the list of numbers at the top. "Look at the experience table. It's simple math."

"It doesn't matter," Jinora said. "The Avatar is an non-player character and that's that. Pick something else."

Next to her, Skoochy yawned and slumped down into the couch. "Remind me why I'm here and not out making money?"

Sighing, Jinora pulled several yuans out of her pocket and shoved them into his hand. A big grin came over his face. "I'm having the best time."

Korra noticed his sheet was already filled out and bent over to look at it. "What are you playing, kid?"

"Handsome young swordsman who deals in finding and selling information."

"How is that any different from real life?" Bolin asked. "Except for the 'handsome' and 'swordsman' parts, that is."

Skoochy scowled at him, but Jinora turned bright red and began to pluck at the threads of the rug she was sitting on. "I made his sheet for him," she mumbled.

The three Fire Ferrets exchanged knowing glances, and Bolin changed the subject. "So my character's a firebender who's descended from the last Fire Nation Avatar, and when I was a baby, I got so sick that my parents went to the secret shrine of the last existing dragons and begged them to save me. Knowing that I had a great destiny ahead of me, the dragons agreed to give me some of their blood..."

"What!" Mako threw up his hands. "First of all, that sounds like the story of Princess Yue, minus the blood part, and second, there's no rules for that!"

Jinora cleared her throat. "Actually, the Dragonblood special ability is in the Ancient Sun Warriors supplement rulebook."

"It lets me add three to either my attack or my damage roll, twice a day," Bolin said proudly.

"Let me see that." Mako took the book in question from her, studied it, then handed it back with a frown. "I hate fourth edition."

0.0.0

_a couple of hours later..._

"Okay, Mako" Jinora said from behind her 'Benders and Brawlers' gamemaster screen, "your airbender's next."

"I attempt to slow down the komodo rhino by bending a gust of wind at it."

"Roll it."

Mako rolled the dice between his palms, then tossed it. "Does an eight hit?"

"No."

He clenched his fists. "Why do these dice hate me?"

Suppressing a smile, Jinora turned to Korra. "Okay, it's your waterbender's turn." They had agreed that, as a newbie, Korra should stick with what she knew the best.

"I wanna stab the rhino in the eye with an icicle."

"Korra." Mako sounded like someone who had explained the same thing a dozen times in a row, which he was. "Ice is a second level waterbending power. At first level you can only do a basic water whip. And trying to hit it in the eye is a called shot, which increases the difficulty."

"Fine." She threw her character sheet at him. "You tell me what I should do."

"Water whip at the rhino," he said without looking at it. "Roll your attack, Korra, and add seven to the number that comes up."

"You don't have to tell me," she grumbled, "I'm getting how this works now." She rolled. "Ten plus seven...does seventeen hit?"

"Yes, and if you still want to do a called shot, it'll hit."

"Cool, yeah, I still want to get it in the eye." Korra selected a single die and rolled for the damage. "Five."

Jinora does a couple of her own rolls, hidden by her screen. "That blinds the rhino, and he's so stunned and scared that he runs away. Nice work. Now there's just one rhino left. Bolin, go."

"I'm using my Dragonblood power for the attack, plus my Chi Focus feat, which gives me another plus one..."

"Just roll it."

"Twenty-one."

"Hit. Roll for damage."

Bolin tossed one die. "Six."

"Your fire engulfs the rhino and he bellows in obvious pain. You smell the scent of charred meat as his flesh sizzles. He manages to beat off the flames by rubbing himself against nearby trees, and when he faces you again he's steaming with rage."

Skootchy chuckled. "You get really into the descriptions."

Jinora blushed. "It's your turn."

Without even looking, he snatched up the dice and tossed them. Jinora peered at them. "Two sixes, that's a critical hit. So double your damage roll."

He rolled. "Twelve."

"You jump up and slice into the animal with your dual dao blades. It doesn't stand a chance against the onslaught and soon lies dead at your feet."

"Awesome." They grinned at each other.

Bolin coughed. "So what did we get?"

"Um, if one of you has butchery as a skill, you can sell the skin, meat and horn. Komodo rhino horn sells for a lot..."

"No. I mean, what did we get for experience points?"

Before Jinora could answer, Ikki and Meelo came into the room on Air Scooters, rustling all the papers and ruffling their hair.

"Are you still playing that boring game?" asked Ikki, coming to a stop and landing on her feet. "I wanna go outside. Korra should be practicing airbending anyway..."

Meanwhile, Meelo jumped off his scooter, took one look at the dice, and shoved them in his mouth.

"MOM!" Jinora hollered. "IKKI AND MEELO ARE RUINING MY GAME!"

A flustered Pema rushed in, pregnant belly and all, so quick she might as well have been an airbender. She picked up Meelo and held out her hand. "Spit them out, young man."

He obliged, and she gave the dice a cursory rub on her shawl before handing them to Mako, who was nearest her. "There you are." She shook her finger at her children. "Now, both of you leave your sister alone when she's gaming, understand? Come on, Ikki."

Scrunching up her face, Ikki followed her mother and brother out of the room. The rest of them looked at the still glistening dice in the palm of Mako's hand.

"What do you say we call this session?" he suggested with a grimace, as Bolin and Korra hid smiles behind their hands.

Jinora's shoulder's slumped. "Okay."

Korra stood up, stretched, and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "This was fun. We'll play again next week, promise."

"You know," said Bolin thoughtfully, "We could try live-action roleplay."

Jinora got a dreamy look on her face at the idea, but Mako groaned. Korra just looked confused. "What's that?"

"Trust me," he replied, "you don't want to know."


End file.
